Internal combustion engines (ICE) are any of a group of devices in which the reactant of combustion, e.g., oxidizer and fuel, and the products of combustion serve as the working fluids of the engine. The basic design concept of ICE has not changed for more than 100 years.
The basic components of an internal combustion engine are well known in the art and include the engine block, cylinders, pistons, connecting rods, crankshaft, valves and camshaft. Such an engine gains its energy from the heat released during the combustion of the non-reacted working fluids, e.g., the oxidizer-fuel mixture. In all internal combustion engines, useful work is generated from the hot, gaseous products of combustion acting directly on moving surfaces of the engine, such as the top or crown of a piston.
One of the primary and consistent design goals for internal combustion engines is to increase power and torque. If the crankshaft/piston mechanism is configured appropriately, the engine may benefit through increased torque placed on the crankshaft as well as a reduction in friction forces between the piston and the cylinder. Referring to FIG. 1, a reciprocating piston mechanism with extended piston offset is disclosed generally in pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/932,053 to Michael Inden, filed on Feb. 17, 2011, titled “Reciprocating Piston Mechanism with Extended Piston Offset”, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. The apparatus 20 (for simplicity of the drawing and description, the cylinder block of an engine and other engine components are not shown) is a driveshaft and piston assembly that comprises a rotary driveshaft 22 (hereinafter referred to merely as “a shaft”) of a square cross-section which includes a circular eccentric 24 mounted in its indexed position and a pair of integrally mounted cylindrical bushings 26a and 26b. The shaft 22 is journaled at the bushings 26a and 26b for rotation about a shaft axis 28. A rocker arm/lever 30, which is pivotally mounted on a circular eccentric 24, has one extended arm 32 pivotally connected to one end of the connecting rod 36 with a pin (not shown) and another extended arm 34 has a pivotally mounted pair of rollers 38a and 38b with a pin 40. The connecting rod 36 at its top distal end is pivotally connected to a piston 42. The mechanical linkage of the connecting rod 36 to the piston 42 and the rocker arm/lever 30 and the circular eccentric 24 which is indexed on the shaft 22 and serves to convert the reciprocating motion of the piston (as indicated by directional arrow A for the piston 42) to the rotational motion (as indicated by directional arrow B) of the shaft 22. The cylindrical bushings 26a and 26b have a coaxial opening of substantially the same cross-section as a cross-section of the shaft 22.
However, the principle of the reciprocating piston mechanism with extended piston offset is not limited by the configuration disclosed generally in pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/932,053 to Michael Inden, filed on Feb. 17, 2011, titled “Reciprocating Piston Mechanism with Extended Piston Offset”. The Applicant found one more configuration for realization of the above-described principle.